Geithner eyes more stimulus

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday said more actions may be necessary to firm up economic recovery, including extended unemployment aid, and he declined to rule out future tax hikes to reduce massive budget deficts.<br /><br />Geithner also said the government needed to show the will to reverse massive deficits after the recovery, including raising tax revenues if necessary.<br /><br />&ldquo;We have to bring them down to a level where the amount we&rsquo;re borrowing from the world is stable at a reasonable level,&rdquo; Geithner said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s going to require some very hard choices. And we&rsquo;re going to have to do that in a way that does not add unfairly to the burdens that the average American already faces.&rdquo;<br /><br />He said it was too soon &ldquo;to make a judgment about what it&rsquo;s going to take&rdquo; to reduce deficits. There were signs the economy is starting to improve, Geithner said, but there is some way to go before it starts growing enough to create jobs again.<br /><br />Although economic forecasters predict that output will turn positive in the second half of this year, Geithner said as that happens, the pace of job losses will slow materially. But government may have to look at extending unemployment benefits to deal with a stubbornly high jobless rate.